Helen's Garden Renovation Project

The raised pond is getting fuller, and it won’t be long before the water level reaches the overflow pipe. The water will drain onto a patch of earth behind the pond. My plan was to plant the pieris there, since it likes damp conditions and it is evergreen, so will still be using some water in the winter.

I dug a deep hole – nearly two feet deep at its deepest – and tipped into it my vast stone collection, amassed while digging the garden over a number of years. This made a mini soakaway to help with the drainage.

Then I filled it up to a depth of 12 inches with earth and compost and stuck the pieris in it, then filled the hole up to the top. I planted the pieris about an inch below the level of the edging blocks because I want a slight dip in this area, so the water run-off from the pond does not go all over the place.

This is what the pieris looks like from the patio.

At the moment it does not quite prevent the very pointy corner of the pond from having an accidental encounter with my leg, but when it grows bigger, it will.

This is the view of the pieris from the side of the pond. You can see (I hope) that the water level is now very close to the top.

I have put bits of paving slab around the pieris to deter weeds and cats, but I really need some ground cover plants that like damp shade to go there. Fortunately my RHS “Plants for Places” book has some attractive suggestions.

I have now positioned seven of the ten paving slabs that I plan to use for stepping stones. Last week I put four between the apple trees.

The day after planting the apple trees, I decided to give them an extra stake each because strong winds were forecast. Today we have a red weather warning for storms in Scotland, and it’s pretty breezy here. I think the extra stake was a good move. In due course I will remove one of the stakes. Maybe. If I remember. I will also find something more attractive to put at the end of the path than one of my cat repellers.

I have also laid three stepping stones running up the side of the shallow pond. I planted the rhododendron to the left of the stepping stones. The rhododendron has grown enormous and it was very difficult to plant because its branches are so low down. After putting it in the hole I thought, sadly, that I would have to prune it.

But then I decided that I didn’t have to prune it very much. I just took off some crossing branches and trimmed the ends, and removed any stems I had broken while planting. Maybe I’ll take some more off after it has finished flowering in February. I have left plenty of room between it and the Elaeagnus because the Elaeagnus will grow much, much bigger, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the rhododendron did too.

Some time in the future I am going to have to decide what to do about the stepping stones in the long term. I have laid them straight onto soil, and used a spirit level to make sure they are roughly level and at the right height. I have lined them up by eye, not with poles and string. I think I would like to get in a professional to lay them properly on mortar and make sure they are nicely lined up, but if I do that, I will have to delay planting around the stones until that has been done, or the plants will only get in the way. It is not easy laying paving stones, especially when they turn out to not be exact squares and the surface is irregular.I think it will be essential to grow lots of plants in between them to hide any imperfections in their positioning.

You may think the slabs look too close together. I have positioned them 18 cm apart, which means that the distance between them matches my stride length. They would probably look better if I moved them further apart, and I would not need so many of them, but they would not be as comfortable.

I will not extend my line of three paving slabs any further in the same direction. The reason is that the pond has a very sharp corner which I don’t want to be tempted to walk into. I will divert the path off to the left, and plant something next to the sharp corner to make it very difficult for anyone to get near it. I may need extra stepping stones, but they don’t have to all be the same type.

So now I have nearly finished establishing my routes, and the apple trees and the rhododendron can get on with establishing their roots.